Confused about E350 steering wheels.

- What is the default wheel if you do not select wood, heated, or flat-bottom? Is it the same as the heated wheel (but obviously with no heat)?

- Can someone confirm dependencies or exclusions with regard to "Lane Tracking Package"? A 2014 E brochure footnote says:
19 ...Heated steering wheel requires Lane Tracking or Driver Assistance Package.

- Is that right that heated wheel requires Lane Tracking? Can Lane Tracking be ordered with flat-bottom sport wheel?

- Anyone know the relative thickness of the heated vs. flat-bottom wheels (one thicker than the other or same thickness)?

- Anyone opt for the heated wheel and regret not getting the flat-bottom wheel?

Any help in this area would be much appreciated.

 

Anyone have clues?

 

I believe it's the same as heated wheel without the heating element as you suggested. At least you you select options on the website it shows up same.
You should be able to select all options for the car regardless of the type of steering you choose.
Unless you are deep in the cold weather belt and really really need heated steering, I would get the flat bottom sports version (which you can enjoy 99% of the time versus 1% for the heated wheel).
There is also an option for getting the wood with flat bottom steering wheel (not on website) but it is a custom order and you may have to wait much longer to get that.

 

Thanks. I'm going to get the leather flat-bottomed 3-spoke sport wheel as you recommend. While that excludes the heating, I hope I can still get the Lane Tracking Package.

 

Can anyone confirm that the optional 3-spoke 'flat bottomed' sport steering wheel (277) can also be had with the Lane Tracking Package (993)?

 

Noka

What happens when you go to Merc site and custom build a car, it will direct you to what is possible. Please get the larger drivers assist package, my car was optioned with the lane and blind spot assist. They work great but I did not get the cruise control up grade and regret it. The steering wheel is important in relation to the lane assist because the vibration warning is transmitted via the steering wheel vibrations. I chose the wood wheel and the wheel itself is very thick and that is a good thing.I like the way you are on point trying to get the build just right. all the best

 

I now have a 2014 E350 4M with the 3-spoke AMG steering wheel #277 and lane tracking package w/blind spot assist #993. The last 4 Winters I had a 2010 with the same wheel and didn't feel the need for a heated one in the land of subzero cold and major snow.

As others have suggested when you build a car on the website it will let you know what combinations you can have ir not.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's like when we built a few houses in the past,... lots of choices and compromises and we never got it perfect. There is always the regret about having done (or not having done) one thing or another during the build process. Even if we had unlimited funds (which we don't), we probably would make some choices that, when looking back on it later, we might have changed.

In my case, I never have used cruise control much in any of my cars. I'm not sure why but maybe I prefer staying more directly connected with what's going on. While I think Distronic is extremely cool and would be fun to use and show off to friends, I somehow worry about the car taking so much control and not sure how comfortable I feel about relinquishing that control, especially in the world of software defects we experience daily in all kinds of computerized gear. (I read some thread on this site or some other about some guy who totaled his Benz due to what he thought was a Distronic malfunction, and he is contemplating some legal action. Who knows?).

That said, I still have time to change my mind. My sales rep has a production slot for mid-December which can be changed. Interestingly, there were some earlier slots open but none would allow him to order the 360-surround camera which I find is a must-have option for me (comes with one of the Parktronic packages). He's not sure why but I wonder if it's a similar problem as the MY'15 C-class due to some 'interference' problem, where that option is not yet orderable.

About the wood wheel: I think it looks really nice, although I would do it in black ash due to my wood trim choice and it might lose some visual appeal due to that. I also think it will be somewhat slippery when wet and probably a bit colder than leather in Winter until it warms up. I'm willing to give up the heat for the flat-bottom sport wheel, especially if the wheel is a bit thicker (so far unable to prove that one way or another, except for switching screens back and forth between the pictures of each wheel on the MBUSA web site, where it appears to be the same diameter but a hair thicker).

 

Thanks. Over the years, I have found that the only accurate system is the one the sales rep uses online to actually place the order. The MBUSA web site (and BMW for that matter) have had glitches in their online build applications. I use it to get a good idea of the possibilities and approximate cost, knowing that it might not be 100% accurate at any given time. In my case, I cannot even access the 2015 online configurator (for US) and I already know there have been some package and pricing changes compared to 2014.

 

Here is my anecdotal experience with ordering a 2015 E350, for what it's worth. I ordered the Driver Assistance package (among other options) with the default non-upgraded steering wheel, which for the sport package is a black, leather-wrapped, 3-spoke wheel.

I had investigated a few steering wheel options while building my car with the dealer in the official order system. Among the other possible options I considered (that were able to work with the Driver Assistance package) were:
- black, flat bottomed sport steering wheel - 277 ($260)
- wood and leather 3-spoke steering wheel (with burl walnut, or brown or black ash)
- designo two-tone leather steering wheel, black + whatever designo leather you choose for your seating - $950 (Y95)
- I didn't consider the black heated steering wheel (443) but was told it was available as an option to me.

Just for general forum FYI, the designo wood and leather steering wheel was discontinued for the facelift E-class.

Good luck with your decisions!